This week, we’re leveraging Ranking Reports in Luminate’s Streaming Viewership (M) to spotlight high-performing unscripted series titles across all digital platforms. This analysis takes into account the top 100 unscripted series in 2024 by total views and includes only platform-original titles. Netflix dominated the total viewership share of unscripted programming in 2024. True crime docuseries like American Nightmare and Dancing For the Devil raked in tens of millions of views while familiar reality favorites like Love is Blind and The Great British Baking Show retained their dedicated fan bases.
Looking closer at docuseries, true crime was the leading subgenre, with nearly half of all high-performing titles falling under this category. An important title to spotlight is Cold Case: Who Killed JonBenet Ramsey. This Netflix original series premiered in late November 2024 and netted over 11 million views between then and the new year. This brought the Q4 release to the #3 highest performing unscripted series overall in 2024. This impressive feat cannot be overstated and is a clear indicator that audiences are still hungry for true crime.
Shifting focus to reality series, the share of viewership across the streamer market is slightly more diversified. Netflix still holds a sizable lead, but Hulu had some notable releases in the realm of unstructured reality with titles like The Secret Lives Of Mormon Wives and The Kardashians, each of these being released in the second half of 2024 and accumulating millions of views by year’s end. In the realm of structured reality, titles like Beast Games and Love Island USA were high performers this year and were the highest-performing competition series for Prime Video and Hulu, respectively.
Docuseries and reality programming continue to be valuable components of the streaming landscape. Since the virality of Netflix’s 2015 series Making A Murderer, they have held a firm grip on the true crime genre, a hold that doesn’t seem to be letting up anytime soon. The reality arena has more room for competition in the coming years. Media giants like Universal and Paramount have robust slates with iconic legacy titles. As broadcast and cable continue to face disruptions from streaming platforms, one can only wonder if moving titles like Real Housewives or Big Brother to streaming only would give Netflix a run for their money.
